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'Music is the medicine'; Shantyman Sean McCann offers balm for troubled times

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Finally, the Shantyman Sings for the Saint in Calgary.

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Sean McCann, co-founder of folk-rockers Great Big Sea, brings his solo show celebrating Irish music to Calgary, Canmore and other Alberta venues, with a mix of Celtic-infused tunes from his new album Shantyman and selections from the Irish songbook.

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Three times postponed, McCann said he’s anxious to return to the stage, especially after two years of the pandemic, news of bodies buried at residential schools and, now, war in Ukraine with the Russian invasion.

Sea shanties I’ve loved my whole life,” he said. “These are songs designed and created specifically to help people get through difficult times by working through it (the pain) and working together. It’s giving song a lot of power, but it actually works. Coming out of the pandemic, people are still bitter and harsh. I’ve never known a time as hard as this. The only way to get through it all is by sticking together.

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Shantyman is the 54-year-old singer-songwriter and Newfoundland native’s sixth solo outing, his first since 2017’s There’s A Place that followed Lullabies for Bloodshot Eyes, Son of a Sailor, Help Your Self and You Know I Love You.

Yes, Shantyman includes the expected rhythms and sounds of Celtic bodhrans and tin whistles. But McCann also tapped several friends, including London guitarist and fiddler J.P. Cormier, Hamilton’s Jeremy Fisher and Huntsville’s Hawksley Workman. Big Sugar’s Gordie Johnson brings some typically big, loud, bold electric guitar to the album, none more riveting than on the song, Shantyman’s Life, with McCann’s tin whistle riding shotgun.

McCann, who’d hoped to work with Johnson during his days with Great Big Sea, said Johnson’s driving guitar on Shantyman’s Life was a surprise: “I just sent him the music to mix and told him I thought something was missing and that’s what he came back with.

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Another inspiring track is 10,000 Miles Away, a reminder of how far we’ve come since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. It features all his friends, who added their bits remotely during the virus crisis.

This song may be set back in the age of sail and silent movies,” said McCann, who lives near Ottawa with his wife and two teenage sons, “but it’s a romantic tale of love conquering isolation that strongly resonates with everyone living through these pandemic days. We may not be completely out of the woods yet, but it’s beginning to feel like we have finally turned the tide and that victory is getting closer now every day.

His favourite tune on the new album? Rolling Sea, an infectious number that draws on the soundtrack of his youth that included a mixed tape of songs by the Chieftains, Men at Work, the Police and the Pogues.

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McCann is well-known for his philanthropy. In 2016, he released the folk song Proud (To Be a Canadian) in partnership with the Canadian Red Cross to benefit victims of the Fort McMurray, Alta., wildfires. And in 2017, he organized a benefit with friends Joel Plaskett, Sarah Harmer and Fisher to buy guitars for veterans suffering from PTSD and other mental health issues. For his work in mental health, Mc-Cann was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2019.

McCann knows a lot about mental health struggles, having battled the bottle and the impact of childhood abuse by a priest. In 2020, he and his wife co-penned the book One Good Reason: A Memoir of Addiction and Recovery.

Interestingly, McCann said he never knew about the residential school abuse suffered by Canada’s Indigenous people until his friend, Gord Downie, raised the issue in the years before his death in 2017.

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I literally did not know about the residential schools,” he said. “But I do know about clergy abuse and the intergenerational trauma it causes. Once it happens, it continues down through generations. It’s one of the biggest challenges Canadians face.

McCann’s been clean – no booze or cigarettes – for more than a decade, and loving it.

After making music for 20 years under the influence, I was initially afraid,” he said. “lost my social network when I stopped drinking and found myself alone with the guitar. I just started to dig deeper and I found that when you’re sober, you actually create more, you’re not impaired. Addiction is a liar. You’re better without it.

McCann is anxious to return to touring. “Like everyone, I’m anxious to put this pandemic behind me. If anything, it’s made me strong. You build resistance, but it’s been so long, I look forward to getting out from under it,” he said.

Music is the medicine.

Spotlight: The Shantyman Sings for the Saint: A Celebration of Irish Music by Séan McCann is at the King Eddy April 28-29 and Canmore’s artsPlace on May. 1

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